For God, Family and Republic

Travel Recollections
Approximately, this time in May, about four years ago, I traveled to Switzerland and the Tyrolean Alps of Austria.

When I visited Switzerland (see CIA factbook entry) and Austria (see CIA factbook entry) in 2002, I found those places to be among one of the most tranquil, beautiful and majestic places I have ever been.

The scenes were captivating and vistas were breathtaking. The air was clean and refreshing. The flora and fauna were lush, and spring-fed ponds dotted the landscape. The rugged ice-caped peaks were a sight to behold. In Switzerland and Austria, the people there were by far the most hospitable of any group in Europe.



The Luzern Canton
On May 18, I visited the city of Lucerne / Luzern (photos), which is the capital of the canton by the same name. Luzern is possessed of a distinctive Swiss charm, and its architecture bares a profound Italian Renaissance influence as Italian craftsman emigres labored tediously to help build the city a few centuries ago. One of the more famous landmarks in Luzern is the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a 204m (670 ft) long wooden bridge originally built in 1333, although part of it had to be replaced after a devastating fire in the early 1990s.

The city itself is nestled along the shore of Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstättersee). Lake Lucern is also known as the Vierwaldstättersee or "Lake of the Four Forest Cantons," may arguably be the most beautiful lake in Switzerland. Though, the largest is Lake Geneva on the French border. Anyway, Lake Lucerne is encompassed by forests and high peaks on all sides, which adds to its tranquilty and splendor. In the early morning throughout the year, a cast of fog adds to the charm, beauty and mystery of this beautiful blue-green body of water. Remnants of the old town walls exist on the hill above Lucerne, complete with four tall watch towers and a city gate near the river.

As you can see from the tourism video accessible from the official Luzern tourism web site, Luzern is an otherwise beautiful European city of class, taste, and sophistication, but than they had to blight the friendly welcome tourist video by making revelation of the decadent nightlife complete with throbbing rap music. This is just more proof that America's cultural exports corrupts the rest of the world, and blights their cultural landscape. You know, I'm offended on their behalf.

Around the vicinity of Lucern, I got to scale a rugged descent up Mount Pilatus via a chairlift. Piilatus is over 7000 feet above sea level, though the magnificent view from the observation tower was shrouded in a cloud of fog, which made for poor visibility that day. Pilatus is host to the world's steepest cogwheel railway which operates seasonally from May to November (or depending on snow conditions.) I opted for the view from the panoramic aerial cable car. Pilatus was named for the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate ironically.

Geographically Luzern stands at the gates of the St. Gothard pass and has been an important trading center and crossroads since the inception of the Swiss nation in the middle ages.

Just northeast of Löwenplatz is the landmark Lion Monument, which is one of the highlights of Luzern. This dying beast is draped over his shield, with a broken spear sticking out of his flank. This treasure was hewn out of a cliff face in 1821 to commemorate the 700 Swiss mercenaries killed in Paris in 1792 at the onset of the French Revolution. The storming of the Bastille on July 14 when the defenders were exposed in the open, the mob attacked them and murdered everyone of them in the most brutal manner possible. The Swiss fought valiantly back, but were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Mark Twain took one look at the monument dedicated to the courageous Swiss soldiers who lost their lives during the French Revolution in 1792 and declared the reclining lion to be, "the saddest and most moving piece of rock in the world."

On May 19, our party stayed at a hotel-lodge pirched high atop a mountain and adjacent to an old chapel with a beautiful view of the valley below. I believe I stayed up late that night playing cards with women at the rustic hotel bar and in one of our hotel rooms. I'm was a gentleman though throughout by tour of Europe! Don't get the wrong idea!

Swiss History and Heritage
The Swiss people have a proud past and are one of the more unique countries in Europe, because they are a confluence of cultures situated on the Alps at the ceiling of Europe, and encompass cantons that speak four languages including French, German, Romansch, and Italian. Swiss confederates united against the counts of Habsburg on the Rütli back to 1307. Their confederation began to grow and take shape as an alliance against the domineering Hapsburg dynasty as the Holy Roman Empire was slowly withering away. The Swiss patriarch is William Tell, and he is renowned for his patriotism in much the same way as George Washington here in the United States.

The Swiss have a firey zeal for local self-government and have preserved their relatively decentralized federal body politic. Most government activity and expenditure is practiced at the local and cantonal level as opposed to the federal level, which is what federalism really means. Federalism embodies the tried
and true principle of subsidiarity, the idea that matters should be handled by the smallest (or, the lowest) competent authority.

Over the years, the Swiss have gained some renown for their reputation as international bankers and fine craftsman whether it is making watches or guns. Today, they have a prosperous market economy, with one of the highest standards of living in the world and they continue their traditions of local self-government.

Though, the Swiss finally joined the United Nations, they have resisted the temptation to join the European Union, which I think is a good think. Likewise, they still have their Swiss Franc, though the Euro is redeemable in Switzerland. The Swiss had a proud martial tradition of armed neutrality. And almost every Swiss male is issued an automatic weapon, and must do about year's service in the military before going into reserve status. The government subsidizes their marksmanship training as civilians as well. Switzerland has heavily fortified redoubts, tank traps in its tunnels, and still maintains the dragon's teeth to stop tank advancements at strategic chokepoints. If necessary, they are prepared to blow up the entrances to various tunnels to impede an invasion. Though, after WWII, the anticipation was never from aggression from Germany, France or Italy, but rather the Soviet bloc.

As former defense analyst Angelo Codevilla documents in his book Between the Alps & A Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and Moral Blackmail Today, the Swiss have been wrongly slandered, scapegoated and extorted for their role in WWII as a neutral power, and were no more culpable for the Holocaust than the United States was. They had nothing to gain from declaring war on Germany, and it would have only meant more loss of life. As Winston Churchill recalled, "of all the neutrals Switzerland has the greatest right distinction... She has been a Democratic State, standing for freedom in self-defense among her mountains, and in thought, in spite of race, largely on our side."



A pit stop in Liechtenstein
Our party crossed into the principalty of Liechtenstein (see CIA factbook entry) is a gadfly among European states. After crossing the River Rhine, we stopped at the capital city of Vaduz. What can one say about Liechtenstein? It's small, and it resembles neighboring Austria and Switzerland in culture and language. The land area is about 160 square kilometers or roughly about 0.9 times the size of Washington, DC. It maintains a customs union with the Swiss and it depends upon them for national defense. The Prince of Liechtenstein Hans-Adam II is among the world's wealthiest heads-of-state, with an estimated wealth of over two billion dollars. The country's population enjoys a high standard of living.

Austria or bust!
Our party entered Austria and drove through the Tyrolean Alps, and made passage to the tranquil city of Innsbruck which is the seat of the state of Tirol. Innsbruck located in the broad valley between tall mountains, the Nordkette(Hafelekar, 2334m) in the north, Patscherkofel (2246m) and Serles (2403m) in the south it is an internationally renowned winter sports centre which has hosted the Winter Olympics on occassion. Innsbruck is an idyllic city surrounded by beatiful Alps and breathtaking vistas. It was also the capital of the state of Tirol. We sampled the nightlife entertainment in Innsbruck which consisted of a dancing troop of Austrians garbed in their traditional mountain wear. The men wore lederhosen, and the women wore their dirndl, while the engaged in that infamous practice of yodeling, which sounds like this Yodeling Mozart (mp3 audio) tract courtesy of Origin Music's For All Seasons collection. I can't say I am dying to crank this stuff up on my car stereo, but hearing it live for the first time is a good cultural experience.

I'm not trying to be pejorative in surmising that Austrians, particularly those outside of Vienna and in Tirol, are basically German-speaking country bumpkins that are acclimated to the mountains.

I know a little conversational German from listening to tapes and CD's, but if only I could learn Schweitzerdeutsch than I could go back and be a missionary. I would love to live there. In any case, I would love to visit Switzerland and Austria again in the future.

I need to scan photos, and might post more on a later date.



Notice
Copyright (c) 2006 Ryan Setliff. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

Related Links:
Alps Travel Pictures - The Swiss and Austrian Alps - Features many photos of mountains and glaciers in the Swiss and Austrian Alps: Eiger, Jungfrau, Rettenbachferner (Sölden, Ötztal), Aletschgletscher (Aletsch Glacier). I credit this spellbinding photo web site for the first pictures in my portfolio here.